Vet figures awaited for sheep shipment

Press, 17 January 1986, Page 2

Vet figures awaited for sheep shipment

World animal protection society officials were refused access to check the live sheep exported to Mexico before the animals were unloaded, according to a New Zealand official. The national director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Mr Neil Wells, said the exporting company, Animal Enterprises of Hamilton, had not allowed an on-board check. More sheep deaths had been reported to the society, he said. Mr John Walsh, the regional director of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, has sent figures from Mexico saying that of the 17,461 sheep loaded at Timaru before Christmas, 463 died on the voyage; the company’s death figure was 433. Another 40 sheep died while being unloaded at the port of Manzarillo, and more deaths were expected as the sheep still at the docks could die of heat stroke, said Mr Walsh. Of 30 lambs born during

the voyage, only one survived, he said.

Thirty per cent of the sheep unloaded were still at the docks waiting to be taken to holding paddocks 750 km away, three days after the animals had arrived, said Mr Walsh. Mr Wells said that Animal Enterprises had predicted a death rate of 1 per cent before the voyage, and the figure of 433 was a 2.4 per cent loss. “The condition of the sheep which arrived is not known,” he said. “I can only assume that if sheep were dying while unloaded they must have been pretty well had it.” The general manager of Animal Enterprises, Mr Don Tate, said figures were being bandied about without any confirmation. “We will only get confirmed figures when the Ministry of Agriculture vets who travelled with the sheep return to New Zealand,” he said. “Their figures cannot be confirmed until then.”

The 433 deaths during the

voyage had been verified by the veterinarians, he said.

Nine more sheep died while they were in pens at the docks for two days after being unloaded, but he could not verify that 40 sheep died during the unloading. “As for 30 lambs being bom during the voyage — that’s bulldust,” he said. “My figures are that seven in-lamb ewes got through the screening tests. Six of these aborted and one live lamb was born, which arrived in Mexico in good condition.” The 30 per cent still at the docks were waiting for transport to holding paddocks. “Moving 18,000 sheep in New Zealand would be a big exercise and take several days. It is no different in Mexico. “It’s my opinion that these people are making statements to fuel an emotive issue and they don’t have to be accurate,” Mr Tate said. Considering it was the first shipment of aged ewes

for slaughtering, the whole venture had been most successful, he said. “Nobody likes 400-odd dead sheep, but if you put the same number of sheen into a paddock in Cantei bury for three weeks you would be appalled at the number of deaths." The average death rate in shipments of 32,000 younger breeding ewes undertaken by the company since 1978 had been 0.84 per cent. He had based his estimate of 1 per cent on that. “We may well find that for older slaughter ewes the death rate is higher than this,” he said. The company would fine-' tune after discussion with the voyage’s veterinarians, but intended to continue the exports. Mr Wells said animal welfare groups would oppose more shipments, as animals were killed inhumanely in Mexico. Mr Walsh would make further inspections of Mexican slaughterhouses and would report to the New Zealand Ambassador in Mexico.